Bar on police exams

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Cuttack, May 14: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) today imposed restrictions on the Indian Police Service Limited Competitive Examination (LCE)-2012, scheduled to be held from May 20 at seven centres — Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Calcutta and Nagpur.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is scheduled to conduct the three-day test to fill some of the over 1,300 posts of IPS officers across the country.

The LCE purported to serve as second option to get lateral entry into the IPS by officers working in armed, central paramilitary and state police services was challenged in the CAT’s Cuttack Bench. Odisha police officers – 10 deputy superintendent of police (DSP) and two inspectors — had filed the petition.

The petitioners contended that the LCE examination, with its present eligibility criteria, would block promotion of Odisha Police Service (OPS) officers to IPS for the next 20 years.

“Taking note of it, the CAT bench constituting of C.R. Mohapatra and Ashok Kumar Patnaik issued a stay order on holding of the LCE examination from May 20,” petitioner counsel Aditya Narayan Das told The Telegraph.

“Earlier the Tribunal had issued notice returnable within three weeks to the Union home ministry. But there had been no response to the notice till date,” Das said.

According to the eligibility criteria, an officer who has completed five years of continuous and actual service as deputy superintendent of police in states under State Police Service, assistant commandants in CPMFs, or officers of the rank of Captain or Major or equivalent in the Armed forces, who have an unblemished service record, are eligible to take the exams.